1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a microlens device and its manufacturing method, an electro-optic device, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, as expansion of multimedia, applications of a lens array (a microlens device) formed of a number of microlenses has been increased.
Such a related art microlens device is used for a various applications, such as, for example, a device disposed between a light source and a liquid crystal panel in a liquid crystal projector to prevent a loss of light intensity, a device provided on a surface of a screen to make displayed images brighter, a device disposed on a solid-state image sensing device to increase incident light intensity, or a device used for an optical communication element for a glass fiber.
As a method of manufacturing such kind of microlens device, there are proposed a method of shaping a glass material by using a metal mold, a method of shaping resin by pinching the resin between a stamper and a base plate, and application of the photolithography method. However, since all of these methods require mold tools or masks to form lenses, it is difficult to form lenses of given shapes and given arrangement at once.
To cope with the above, a Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 1999-142608 discloses a technology in which a droplet is ejected (so called inkjet method) onto a surface of a transparent substrate and then cured to form a convex microlens.
By using this technology, complicated patterns can be easily formed without any masks or mold tools necessary for the photolithography method, printing methods, or molding methods.
However, there is a problem as explained below in common to the related art as described above.